Chelsea’s Hazard Scoops PFA Player Of The Year Award

Chelsea FC’s Eden Hazard has won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year 2015 award, as Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane claimed the Young Player’s gong.

The Professional Footballers’ Association Players’ Player of the Year is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the year in English football. Barcelona’s Luis Suarez won the award in 2014, when he played for Liverpool FC.

Hazard, 24, beat the trio of Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea, Spurs forward Kane and Liverpool’s attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho, who were also named in the shortlist for both the PFA Player and Young Player of the Year prizes, as well as Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez and his Chelsea team-mate Diego Costa.

As well as Hazard, De Gea and Coutinho, Chelsea’s Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling were the other players who vied for the PFA Young Player of the Year award, won by Kane.

Belgium international Hazard, who has had a part to play in 21 of Chelsea’s goals in 32 appearances so far this season, has had a season to remember in west London.

The £32m signing from French club LOSC Lille in June 2012 has also created 88 chances (including 8 assists), and made 1,733 passes in 2,835 minutes of Premier League football.

Hazard and his team-mates- five of whom were included in the PFA Team of the Year- could not break a resilient Arsenal defense in the London derby earlier in the day, but a 0-0 draw at the Emirates stadium was enough for Chelsea, who have a game in hand against Leicester City on Wednesday, to edge closer to their fifth title in as many years; ten points ahead of second-placed Gunners with four matches left in the season.

England international, Kane, has had a breakthrough campaign in the current dispensation, having notched up 20 goals and presently trailing Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero by a goal in the race for the 2015 Premier League golden boot.

Veteran Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard was honoured, alongside New York FC loanee Frank Lampard, with a special merit award each by the PFA at an annual awards gala in London on Sunday night.

Gerrard is set to join Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy at the end of the season after a 17-year partnership with the Reds, which saw him win the 2005 Champions League and five other major trophies, making 706 appearances and notching 183 goals for the club to date.